Thibault is shaking his head. “Tsk tsk,” he says, leading me to believe this is a very bad sign. Did I do something wrong?
Ozzie ends the mystery for me. “Anita? Isn’t that the wife of one of the owners?”
Thibault answers. “Yes. I believe she is. Right, Lucky?”
Lucky is nodding. “That’s my understanding.” He looks at me. “Keep going.”
I nod before picking up again. “Okay . . . where was I . . . ?” I use my finger to find my place and then flip to the back of the report to remind myself what’s there. I take a couple of moments to decide how technical I want to be with them. I don’t want to shortchange my work, like May said, but I also don’t want to act like I’m showing off. It’s easy for me to geek out and for people to get the wrong impression.
I stare at the paper as I continue. “Right. Okay. So, you can take a look at the more detailed screenshots that I provided at the end, and the more technical details, but in essence she had hidden some files using special software with a pretty heavy-duty encryption tool on her local drive, and in these files and via some other sources online, I found documentation that seems to suggest that she has created several entities, which I verified through the Department of State do exist. Each of them shows her as the sole owner. I cross-referenced this with the payments that Lucky tagged in the system as suspicious, and they’re all linked. Every one. She’s been paying herself for services that appear as if they were rendered but were more than likely not rendered at all or were rendered for significantly less money than she paid herself.”
I pause, giving them a few seconds to absorb the information, before continuing. “She did try to hide her identity, and she might have gotten away with it, but . . . she didn’t.”
“I don’t get it,” says Toni. “What do you mean by that?”
“What I mean is, she probably had help. Either she or someone she knows is a pretty sophisticated computer user, and there was some degree of legal work done too to hide the various entities and the ownership of them. The info I needed to find was not available as a matter of public record. But I found it. She just got unlucky, I guess. Most people would have missed it or wouldn’t have been able to access it.” Yes, I am a computer badass, and I’m not afraid to admit it. Frank should have never let me go.
“Did you hack into someone’s computer?” Toni asks, as if she doesn’t believe it.
“It might be better if I don’t share all the details with everyone.” I shrug. “For deniability reasons. You understand.” Not that anyone will be able to trace what I did, but still. It doesn’t hurt to keep the circle of people-in-the-know very small, and I’m pretty sure she’s not a decision maker around here.
Toni scowls, but Thibault smiles, and I take that as a good sign. Ozzie’s expression is as unreadable as ever. Dev and Lucky are nodding. May looks like she just watched her baby take her first step. I think she’s having a hard time not clapping. My chest is ready to explode, my heart is so full right now.
“How much money are we talking here?” Thibault asks.
I turn to Lucky for that. I found all the connections and did the tally, but I don’t want to step on his toes. He’s the financial guy, not me. I know how to be a team player.
“Nearly a million dollars over five years.”
Dev whistles in appreciation of the awfulness, forcing me to look up at him. We catch each other’s eyes and my face starts to burn. I have to look away. I cannot believe how silly I feel, with my stomach doing flips and my heart going nuts, just looking at him. He’s like the cuttlefish, hypnotizing me with his powers of adorableness.
Ozzie’s focus is back on me. “I know this is more of a legal question, but what do you know about prosecuting for embezzlement? Do you know if we have enough evidence here?”
Now my heart is stopping for a whole other reason. “Uhh . . . I have no idea. Sorry.” Oops. Was I supposed to research that?
Lucky picks up the conversation. “No worries. It’s not your area of expertise. This report is really nice. Very thorough. It must have taken you hours to put it together.” He pages through it for effect, holding up a screenshot for Thibault to see.
“It did, but I had a lot of coffee and the kids were asleep, so . . .” I shrug, appreciating Lucky’s efforts at making me feel better but still sad that I didn’t think to look up the legal aspects. Sure, it’s not my area of expertise, but I knew what we were doing the work for.
“I told you she’s good.” My sister is still beaming.
When Ozzie is done paging through the report, he hands it over to Thibault. Then Thibault takes his turn with it, nodding with every turn of a new page. Dev nods his head and winks at me before shifting his focus to studying Thibault’s expression.